The point of it all (Crypt Crew's Ticket booth)

She can’t believe it. She was finally here. 

Cassiopeia was teeming with excitement currently, she’s not even on the ship yet! She’s going over to meet with Lumina to get a ticket onto the ship. Of course, she knew the process, they were natural helpers! So she had to bring the entire crypt crew along to earn their keep of course! She was practically skipping towards the booth, worming her way through the crowd, looking over her shoulder to make sure her friends didn’t get lost within the crowd. 

Which speaking of, they were dragged behind. They knew that the tickets for the Star Catcher were at an all time high, but they didn’t know it’d be this bad. Tiana fluttered over head, barely able to keep up with her excitement. “Ms. Cassie! Wait up for us! The others can’t catch up!” Of course, Cassie hears this and looks back, seeing poor Pyre and Marjani barely able to squeeze on by. “You’ll be fine!” She waved her paw. “Come on! Pick up the pace, I don’t want you all to work too late!” She smiled at them, saving them a spot up front. It took a couple seconds as they finally caught up—only to be greeted with a wide smile as Lumina spoke about some creed and the point of Cometfall!

“This is the whole point of our communities.” Cassie whispered to Pyre, who glanced back at her. Quietly thinking to herself: She’s a child again. The spark is back in her eyes once more, I wonder if it’s like this every year? Pyre turned her head back towards Lumina as she finished up her speech, she smiled. Pyre couldn’t deny, the feelings around Cometfall were almost infectious! Lumina dispersed them, the crypt crew huddled around one another to give each other their game plan. 

“Alright,” Cassie starts off, “I’m off to the fields to help clean up shards.” She then glanced at Marjani, “I’m off to help clean up the lake nearby, they need divers to help collect trash after a Comet struck a dam.” Marjani then looked towards Tiana, “I’m off to go help the bakers and cooks, they’re throwing Festivals tonight!” Tiana then looks at Pyre, who simply smiled widely. “I’m obviously gonna repair roofs, it’s what I do best! Repair things!!!” Cassie laughed at the young noodle and nodded, “Alright, we’ll meet here at dusk! I don’t want you all working too late, you hear? No straining.” She pointed a claw at each one of them.

They nodded and broke off. Cassie was happily skipping off to the fields with a bunch of fellow researchers, musing about theories of the shards and the like. Marjani took a dive into the waters, cleaning up any floating and sunken debris in the process. Tiana hummed to herself as she helped her fellow bakers with the pastries and meals they were making—it was all hands on deck here. And finally Pyre hopped around like a happy little bunny asking Candle Noodles who had holes in their roofs if she could fix them. 

Each one of them was thoroughly pleased with their work. Everyone but one remembered their time frame and got back by Dusk. Marjani laughed seeing Pyre covered in dirt and dust from the fixing. “Oh kid, look at you!” Marjani belly laughed. Tiana fluttered by, wiping off soot from her face. She looked around, noticing that Cassie was missing. She sighed. “Oh the doctor’s off in dreamland.” Tiana floated off towards the direction she remembered Cassie went towards, the other two faians followed. 

Of course, Cassie was in fact fully dedicated to the research with other participants. They watched from a distance, Pyre finally mentioning, “She’s much more relaxed, ain’t she?” Marjani hummed in agreement, “Yea, she is. I mean, don’t y’all know. Cometfall is her favorite time of year.” Tiana rose a non-existant brow. “Do tell.” Marjani smiled, “Oh great, you haven’t heard the Story of Nyx yet.” Tiana shook her head. “Well long ago, when Cassie was a little Waxling, during her first Cometfall she experienced something extraordinary.” Marjani hummed, looking up, “It’s what nudged her to become a Critter Researcher in the first place.” Marjani smiled.

“I mean, we’ve all had our moments sure, I had mine during the Rite of the Reef. I met my Lutris.” Marjani smiled, “I also found my Vibrant Coral Charm then too.” She smiled, “Well, Cassie was very young. And she loved watching the stars, she was named after one. She wished during one of these showers for a friend and seemingly, upon wishing such. She got one. A Comyt, named Nyx.” Marjani enjoyed the story and understood why Cassie repeated it so often to anyone that would listen.

“They were instantly connected, you know how we chose our pets? Well the same thing happened then. Yet, Nyx couldn’t stay for long of course, Cassie was only young and Comyt was still frightened.” Marjani whispered, “So she helped it up before letting the young Comyt float back up towards the sky, back to its family.” Marjani gently smiled, “That’s why she does this. For moments like those.” She nodded, clearing her throat. 

“She said Dusk right?” Marjani asked, Pyre nodded in response. “Well she has three seconds.” Marjani joked, looking over towards the settling sun. The lumendra wiggled its paws up towards its snout, the others following suit as they yelled out towards Cassiopeia. 

“CASSIE!”

“DR. CASSIOPEIA!”

“DOC!”

Upon the several ways to call her practically echoed through the hills, Cassie looked over her shoulder to see the Crypt crew waiting for her at the peak of the hill. She sighed, she was the one that enacted the curfew and she was the one breaking it. She smiled at herself before shaking her head, “Yea yea I’m coming!” She waved goodbye to the researchers before heading up towards her crew, “Do you all have fun?” She smiled, Pyre nodded vigorously, explaining in way too much detail about the houses she repaired. The Crew made their way back towards Lumina as she gave out tickets. 

They finally got in front and smiled at her, explaining what they did and how they helped the community. Each one grabbing their ticket, they were finally at the end of their Cometfall journey. And of course, Cassie was more nervous than ever.